Critical Reflection

In the module, ES1102, the class exercises used are mainly academic writing. We are asked to share our experiences, summarise articles and provide our responses to an issue. These writings are being post on online blogs whereby the tutor and our classmates have access to. Sometimes in class, we would work with different peers to give feedback to the writing of another classmate. Our tutor would also provide us with formal feedback and instruct us to improve our writing based on the feedback given. As we are constantly told to improve on our writing, it is common for one paper to have multiple drafts.

The peer evaluation used in class is beneficial to both parties, the giver and the receiver. The feedback given to the receiver help the individual to be aware of his or her writing mistakes and prevent the possibility of the same mistake being made again. For those that provide feedback, they are able to learn from the positive writing skills used by their classmates and by evaluating others’ works, it also increase their sensitivity to writing mistakes. For me, peer evaluation is enjoyable most of the time as I am able to work with various ones and to learn from them. Being able to read others’ works give me more exposure to well written works whereby I can learn from their organisation and vocabulary. The feedback given by my tutor has also helped me to be more coherent and clearer in my delivery of content.

Through the feedback given by my peer and tutor, I am now more aware of my writing mistakes which helps me to look out for such mistakes in my writings and to correct them before submitting. Some of the things that I have learned from the exercises are consistency in usage of tenses, parallelism and subject-verb agreement. While peer evaluation is quite effective, there are times whereby I did not take their feedback seriously as I did not agree entirely with the feedback given and would only correct the mistakes if it is pointed out by my tutor. Also, when I am asked to provide feedback, there are moments whereby I am not sure of the mistakes that I highlighted to my peer and might feel that my feedback is of little value but since we are paired up, it was better as I can discuss with my partner and when they are more knowledgeable than me, they are able to guide me.

Overall, my learning experience in class has helped in the development of my English language, by learning from my mistakes, I am better able to convey my ideas in my writings. Through the learning process, I hope I will continue to keep in mind the proper usage of grammar and good writing skills to inform my future writings done in the university and the workforce. The increased in sensitivity to writing mistakes can also help me when I vet through my assignments.